CENTER FOR GENETICS AND SOCIETY
436 14th St., Suite 1302, Oakland, CA 94612


OPEN LETTER TO U.S. SENATORS ON
HUMAN CLONING AND EUGENIC ENGINEERING




Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle
Senate Minority Leader Trent Lott
Members of the Senate
cc: President George W. Bush
Members of the House of Representatives

March 19, 2002

Dear Senators,

The United States Senate will soon be considering legislation on human cloning. Your decisions will have profound implications for the future of humanity.

The new technologies of human genetic engineering are among the most consequential technologies ever developed. If used wisely they hold great promise for preventing and treating disease, but if misused they could lead to a future more horrific than any we might imagine.

These technologies are being developed at a frenzied pace. The general public has had little real opportunity to understand and consider their full implications. There are few significant controls over their use.

These conditions leave us vulnerable to being pushed into a new era of eugenic engineering, one in which people quite literally become manufactured artifacts. The implications for individual integrity and autonomy, for family and community life, for social and economic justice and indeed for world peace are chilling. Once humans begin cloning and genetically engineering their children for desired traits we will have crossed a threshold of no return.

Given the rapid pace of development, the enormous stakes, the lack of societal controls and the fact that informed public debate has barely begun, what is the responsible course of legislative action at this time?

With regard to human cloning, we believe the answer is straightforward.

First and obviously, the United States should ban the creation of full-term human clones (“reproductive cloning”). There is no unmet need that requires the creation of genetic duplicates of existing people. Surveys show that 90% of Americans support bans on reproductive cloning. Nearly thirty countries worldwide have already agreed to such bans. The United States should do likewise without delay.

Second, the United States should enact a moratorium on the creation of clonal human embryos for research purposes (often prematurely called “therapeutic cloning”). The widespread creation of clonal embryos would increase the risk that a human clone would be born, and would further open the door to eugenic procedures. Fortunately, important research on embryonic stem cells does not yet require the use of clonal embryos. A moratorium would allow time for alternatives to research cloning to be investigated, for policy makers and the public to make informed judgments, and for regulatory structures to be established to oversee applications that society might decide are acceptable. A moratorium on research cloning is a middle ground between the two positions of an immediate permanent ban and an unconstrained green light.

We strongly urge as well that the United States join with other countries, under the auspices of the United Nations, to work towards an international convention that would ban dangerous applications of the new genetic technologies, while encouraging the many applications judged to contribute to the improvement of human well-being.

We are long-time advocates for human rights, the environment, and social justice. We are strong supporters of women's health and reproductive rights, disability rights, and biomedical research. We believe in the inherent equality and human dignity of all people. We want to help ensure that our descendants live in a world in which these values are sustained and nurtured.

We believe that a ban on reproductive cloning and a moratorium on the creation of clonal embryos are the policies most consistent with the values and commitments we share. We strongly urge you to support legislation that would enact such policies into law.

Sincerely,

[An asterisk indicates an organizational endorsement; organizational affiliations are otherwise shown for identification purposes only.]

Lori B. Andrews, J.D., Visiting Professor, Princeton University; former Chair, U.S. Human Genome Project Ethical, Legal and Social Implications Working Group
George J. Annas, J.D., M.P.H., Edward R. Utley Professor and Chair, Health Law Department, Boston University Schools of Medicine and Public Health; Co-founder, Global Lawyers and Physicians
Adrienne Asch, Ph.D., Henry R. Luce Professor in Biology, Ethics, and the Politics of Human Reproduction, Wellesley College
Thomas Athanasiou, author, Divided Planet: The Ecology of Rich and Poor
Diane Beeson, Ph.D., Chair, Department of Sociology and Social Welfare, California State University at Hayward
Medea Benjamin, Founding Director, Global Exchange
Philip L. Bereano, J.D., Vice-President, Washington Biotechnology Action Council;* Board member, Council for Responsible Genetics*
Paul Billings, M.D., Ph.D., Founder and Executive Vice-President, Chief Scientific and Medical Officer, GeneSage, Inc.
Brent Blackwelder, Ph.D., President, Friends of the Earth*
Charles L. Bosk, Ph.D., Faculty Associate, Center for Bioethics, University of Pennsylvania
Patricia A. Buffler, M.P.H., Ph.D., Dean emerita, University of California at Berkeley School of Public Health
Daniel Callahan, Ph.D., Co-founder and former President, The Hastings Center
Alexander Morgan Capron, L.L.B., Henry W. Bruce Professor of Law and Medicine, University of Southern California School of Law; Co-Director, Pacific Center for Health Policy and Ethics; former member, National Bioethics Advisory Commission
Neil Carmen, Ph.D., Sierra Club Genetic Engineering Committee
John Cavanagh, Executive Director, Institute for Policy Studies
Ignacio Chapela, Ph.D., Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management, University of California at Berkeley
Henry Cisneros, Ph.D., Chairman and CEO, America City Vista; former U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development
Mitchell Cohen, Co-Editor, Dissent; professor of political science, Baruch College, City University of New York
Peter Conrad, Ph.D., Harry Coplan Professor of Social Sciences and Sociology Department Chair, Brandeis University
Irene Crowe, Ph.D., President, Pettus-Crowe Foundation
Alice J. Dan, Ph.D., Professor and Director, Center for Research on Women and Gender, University of Illinois – Chicago
Michael Dorsey, Thurgood Marshall Fellow, Dartmouth College; member, Sierra Club National Board of Directors
Barbara Dudley, former Executive Director, Greenpeace USA
Troy Duster, Ph.D., Professor of Sociology, New York University; author, Backdoor to Eugenics
Gregg Easterbrook, visiting fellow, the Brookings Institution; author, A Moment on the Earth
Linda L. Emanuel, M.D., Ph.D., Director, Health Section, Ford Center on Global Citizenship, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University
Marlene Fried, Ph.D., Director, Civil Liberties and Public Policy Program, Hampshire College.
Alexander Gaguine, President, The Appleton Foundation
Herbert J. Gans, Ph.D., R. S. Lynd Professor of Sociology, Columbia University; author, The War
Against the Poor
Seymour Garte, Ph.D., Professor of Environmental and Community Medicine, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey; Scientific Director, Genetics Research Institute, Milan Italy
Fred Goff, President, The Data Center; co-founder, North American Conference on Latin America
Lynn R. Goldman, M.P.H., M.D., Professor, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health; former Assistant Administrator, EPA Office of Prevention, Pesticides and Toxic Substances
Viola Gonzales, Executive Director, Latino Issues Forum
Herbert Chao Gunther, President and Executive Director, Public Media Center
Robert M. Gould, M.D., President, Physicians for Social Responsibility, Bay Area Chapter
Eva Harris, Ph.D., President, Sustainable Sciences Institute; Assistant Professor, University of California at Berkeley School of Public Health
Betsy Hartmann, Ph.D., Director, Population and Development Program, Hampshire College; author, Reproductive Rights and Wrongs: The Global Politics of Population Control
Tom Hayden, author; former California State Senator; co-founder, Students for a Democratic Society
Randy Hayes, President, Rain Forest Action Network
Richard Hayes, Executive Director, Center for Genetics and Society
Don Hazen, Executive Director, Independent Media Center
Willard Hedden, Ph.D., Executive Director, Educational and Environmental Media Corporation
Anne Hemenway, Vice-President/Secretary, Citizens Vote, Inc.
Russell Hemenway, National Director, National Committee for an Effective Congress (NCEC)
Jim Hightower, radio commentator and author
Arlie Russell Hochschild, Ph.D., Professor of Sociology, University of California at Berkeley; Director, Center for Working Families; author, The Managed Heart
Andrew J. Imparato, President and CEO, American Association of People with Disabilities
Sheila Jasanoff, J.D., Ph.D., Professor of Science and Public Policy, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University
Huey Johnson, President, Resource Renewal Institute; former California State Secretary of Natural Resources
Phillip Kitcher, Ph.D., Professor of Philosophy, Columbia University; author, The Lives to Come: The Genetic Revolution and Human Possibilities
John Knox, President, Earth Island Institute
Marc Lappé, Ph.D., Executive Director, Center for Ethics and Toxics; author, Broken code: The Exploitation of DNA
Philip R. Lee, M.D., Institute for Health Policy Studies; former Chancellor, University of California at San Francisco; former Assistant Secretary of Health, U.S. Health and Human Services Department
Michael Lerner, President, Commonweal
Michael Lerner, Ph.D., Editor, Tikkun
Susan Lindee, Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania; co-author, The DNA Mystique: The Gene as Cultural Icon
Daniel B Magraw Jr., Executive Director, Center for International Environmental Law; former Director, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency International Environmental Law Office
Julianne Malveaux, Ph.D., syndicated national columnist; editor, Voices of Vision: African American Women on the Issues
Manning Marable, Ph.D., Columbia University; Director, Institute for Research in African-American Studies
Gina Maranto, University of Florida; author, The Quest for Perfection: The Drive to Breed Better Humans
Richard Marker, D.D., Executive Vice-President, Samuel Bronfman Foundation
Luz Alvarez Martinez, Executive Director, National Latina Health Organization
Bill McKibben, author, The End of Nature
Everett Mendelsohn, Ph.D., Professor, History of Science and Technology, Harvard University; past President, International Council for Science Policy Studies
Harry R. Moody, Ph.D, Director, Institute for Human Values in Aging
Rosario Isasi Morales, M.P.H., J.D., Boston University Dept. of Health Law; Global Lawyers and Physicians
Jose F. Morales, Ph.D., Director, Public Interest Biotechnology
Robert K. Musil, Ph.D., M.P.H., Executive Director and CEO, Physicians for Social Responsibility
Christine McCullum, Ph.D., Center for Health Promotion and Prevention Research, School of Public Health, University of Texas – Houston
Kay McVay, R.N., President, California Nurses Association*
Judy Norsigian, Executive Director and Co-founder, Boston Women's Health Book Collective*; co-author, Our Bodies, Ourselves.
David Olsen, Director, CEO Coalition to Advance Sustainable Technology; former President and CEO, Patagonia, Inc.
John Passacantando, Executive Director, Greenpeace USA
Michele Perrault, International Vice-President, Sierra Club
Ron Pollack, J.D., Executive Director, Families USA
Catherine Porter, former Executive Director, Consultative Group on Biodiversity
Alvin F. Poussaint, M.D., Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School; Director, Judge Baker Children's Center Media Center
Ruth B. Purtillo, Ph.D., Director and Professor, Creighton University Center for Health Policy and Ethics
Carolyn Raffensperger, J.D., Executive Director, Science and Environmental Health Network
Mark Ritchie, President, Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy
Orlando Rodriguez, Ph.D., Professor of Sociology & Anthropology, Fordham University; former Director, Fordham Hispanic Research Center
Joel Rogers, Ph.D., John D. MacArthur Professor of Law, Political Science, and Sociology, University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Joel M. Roselin, M.T.S., Director of Public Programs, Harvard Medical School Department of Social Medicine, Division of Medical Ethics
Barbara Katz Rothman, Ph.D., Professor of Sociology, City University of New York; author, The Book of Life: A Personal and Ethical Guide to Race, Normality and the Implications of the Human Genome Project
Leonard Rubenstein, J.D., Executive Director, Physicians for Human Rights
Arlie Schardt, President, Environmental Media Services; former national press secretary, Al Gore for President (1987-88)
Evelyne Shuster, PhD; Adjunct Associate Professor of Philosophy, Department of Psychiatry, University of Pennsylvania, and Human Rights and Medical Ethics Program, Veterans Affairs Medical Center
Alexandra E. Shields, Ph.D., Georgetown University Institute for Health Care Research and Policy
Marjorie R. Sims, Executive Director, California Women's Law Center
Latonya Slack, J.D., Executive Director, California Black Women's Health Project
David H. Smith, PhD, Director, The Poynter Center for the Study of Ethics & American Institutions
Linda Tagliaferro, author, Genetic Engineering: Progress or Peril?
Michael Walzer, Ph.D., Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton
Alan Watahara, President and General Counsel, California Children's Lobby
Henry Waukazoo, Director, Native American Health Center
Jon Weil, Ph.D. former Director, Program in Genetic Counseling, University of California at Berkeley; author, Psychosocial Genetic Counseling
Charles Weiner, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus, History of Science and Technology, MIT
Alan J. Weisbard, J.D., Assoc. Prof. of Law, Medical Ethics and Jewish Studies, University of Wisconsin
Adam Werbach, CEO, U.S. Sky Trust; former President, Sierra Club
David Winickoff, founder, Harvard Law School Ethics, Law and Biotechnology Society
Susan Wright, Ph.D., University of Michigan; author, Molecular Politics

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This Open Letter was circulated by the Center for Genetics and Society, a non-profit information and public affairs organization committed to encouraging socially responsible governance of the new human genetic and reproductive technologies, in cooperation with other concerned organizations and individuals. For information or to reply contact:

Dr. Marcy Darnovsky, Associate Executive Director
Center for Genetics and Society
426 14th St. Suite 1302, Oakland, CA 94612
ph: 510-625-0819; fx: 510-625-0874
mdarnovsky@genetics-and-society.org
http://www.genetics-and-society.org/